Messages In This Digest (2 Messages)

1.: "Locals" angry at Agarwal for anti-dam fast? From: Rajiv Rawat

2.: New Uttarakhand Cinematic History Web Site From: Rajiv Rawat

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1.: "Locals" angry at Agarwal for anti-dam fast?

Posted by: "Rajiv Rawat" rajiv@yorku.ca rajiv_rawat

Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:04 pm (PDT)

/Both Congress and Koshiyari faction of BJP (which is opposing Khanduri)
have led mobs to attack Agarwal and other fasters. I remember
Koshiyari's callous remarks towards the Tehri dam oustees, and his
faction seems to be continuing in that same vein with Congress. Their
ideology of so-called development at all costs resonates with a sector
of the population that has been lurred by the promise of jobs and easy
money. However, the record of dam building shows they won't get much of
either as most employment goes to outsiders, and most revenue goes to a
few contractors. As for Agarwal's fast, the region has a bad experience
with this kind of activism as it is too reminiscent of the unfortunately
discredited Sunderlal Bahuguna style of charismatic leadership. More
effort need to be expended in local organizing otherwise these efforts
might boomerang.
/

* Activist faces wrath of locals*
S.M.A. Kazmi
Tribune News Service

G.D. Agarwal
G.D. Agarwal

Dehra Dun, June 22
Noted environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, who has been on a fast unto death
since June 13 on the banks of Bhagirathi river at Uttarkashi, faced the
ire of local residents forcing him to shift to the safety of a
guesthouse last evening.

Local leaders of Uttarkashi belonging to all political parties today
came out openly against the fast undertaken by Agarwal and did not
allowed anti-dam activists to hold their proposed meeting to be
addressed by Rajinder Singh also known as 'water man'.

In a protest against the fast by Agarwal, locals also took out his
funeral procession. The locals held a meeting at the same venue where
Rajinder Singh was to address his supporters from all over the country
and condemned outsiders for stalling the state's development in the name
of environment and religion.

The Congress legislator from Yamunotri, Kedar Singh Rawat, who led the
locals, alleged that the fast undertaken by Agarwal was against the
development of Uttarakhand and would harm local people.

"It was all politically motivated. Agarwal should have initiated such a
move at Kanpur to clean Ganga where he has taught all his life," he charged.

The locals tore the tents where Agarwal was sitting, forcing the police
and the district administration to shift him to the safety of a local
guesthouse. Agarwal left for New Delhi today, where he proposed to
continue his fast.

He had demanded that there should not be any hydro-electric projects on
river Ganga between Gangotri, the origin of the river, and Uttarkashi, a
distance of 150 km. His fast was supported by large number of
environmentalists, social and political activists.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and saints belonging to the Sangh Parivar at
its Marg Darshak meeting held at Hardwar on June 15 and 16 also extended
support to the cause of Ganga and put pressure on the BJP state
government to shelve the 480 MW Pala Maneri and 600 MW Bhairon Ghati
power projects.

Agarwal had announced that he would continue his fast in New Delhi from
June 23 to put pressure on the Union government to abandon Lohari
Nagpala project being built by National Thermal Power Corporation
(NTPC), a central government undertaking.

Uttarakhand Congress had termed the agitation by Agarwal as a political
gimmick by Sangh Parivar to rake up the issue of Ganga before 2009 Lok
Sabha elections. "If the Sangh Parivar saints are sincere towards Ganga,
they should as a first step stop throwing the sewerage of their ashrams
at Rishikesh and Hardwar into Ganga," Suryakant Dhasmana, a senior
Congress leader said.

Activists against dams on Ganga forced to wind up protest(Lead)

June 22nd, 2008 - 12:47 am ICT by IANS - Email This Post
<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/activists-against-dams-on-ganga-forced-to-wind-up-protestlead_10062904.html/email/> Email
This Post
<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/activists-against-dams-on-ganga-forced-to-wind-up-protestlead_10062904.html/email/>

Dehradun, June 21 (IANS) Noted environmentalist G.D. Agarwal and fellow
activists
<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/activists-against-dams-on-ganga-forced-to-wind-up-protestlead_10062904.html#>,
on a hunger strike since June 13 to protest construction of dams on the
river Ganga, had to wind up their agitation Saturday evening after a
crowd of 400 people shouted slogans against them. "The demonstrators
were virtually gheraoed (cricled) by the crowd who claimed themselves to
be locals and said stoppage of the dams would harm their interests and
of the people of the hill state," Vyomesh Chitranvansh, a spokesperson
for the fasting activists, told IANS on phone.

The crowd reportedly consisted of former Uttarakhand chief minister
Bhagat Singh Koshiyari's supporters.

The demonstrators would leave for Delhi Sunday morning. "But the
agitation would continue and Agarwal says he will continue his fast in
the national capital though his health had deteriorated," he said.

The incident followed a media statement by the former chief minister
that the suspension of work on two dams as announced by the Uttarakhand
government Thursday evening, in the wake of Agarwal's protest, was not
in the interest of the people of the state.

Agarwal, 76, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology
<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/activists-against-dams-on-ganga-forced-to-wind-up-protestlead_10062904.html#>
(IIT) and former secretary general to the Central Pollution Control
Board, launched his hunger strike against plans to construct six dams
over the Ganga in a 100-km stretch from Gangotri, the source of the
river, and Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.

He was accompanied by 10 environmentalists, lawyers and rights
activists, while many others joined in the demonstrations every day.
They believe that damming of the Ganga would restrict the river's
natural flow and this would have serious environmental repercussions.

Chitravansh said Koshiyari issued his statement after the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) government in the state Thursday night announced,
following Agarwal's protest, that two of the dams on the Ganga would be
suspended.

Koshiyari, also from the BJP, said the government's decision was not in
the interest of the people of the hill state.

"Today evening, some 300 to 400 people claiming to be locals came to the
Manikanika Ghat in Uttarkashi where Agarwal and others were on fast and
gheraoed them. They shouted slogans against him asking him to go back,"
he said.

The police
<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/activists-against-dams-on-ganga-forced-to-wind-up-protestlead_10062904.html#>
soon arrived on the scene and asked Agarwal and others to pack up before
things slipped out of hands. All of them had to leave the place and they
reached Kuriyal Bhawan at the office of the Ganga Mukti Abhiyan,
Chitravansh said.

--
_______________________________________
Rajiv Rawat (MES, PhD Candidate)
Yellowknife, NT, Canada
web (personal): http://www.rawat.org
web (projects): http://www.prayaga.org

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2.: New Uttarakhand Cinematic History Web Site

Posted by: "Rajiv Rawat" rajiv@yorku.ca rajiv_rawat

Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:04 pm (PDT)

*A New Repository for Uttarakhand Cinematic History*

June 25, 2008

/See: http://cinema.prayaga.org//

In May 2008, Uttarakhand's artistic community marked the twenty-fifth
anniversary of Uttarakhand Cinema. A new web site has today gone online
to bring this Silver Jubilee to the Internet. Drawing from Garhwali
filmmaker Parashar Gaur's copious archives and various other sources,
the site hopes to serve as a repository for artifacts relating to the
pioneering spirits behind Uttarakhand's modern cultural renaissance
through theatre and film.

As one of India's newest states, Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar
Pradesh's northernmost districts in 2000 to meet the cultural and
economic aspirations of its peoples. The movement that led to statehood
was itself deeply embedded in the decades-long strivings of Garhwalis
and Kumaonis for cultural affirmation and political empowerment. By
tapping into the region's rich heritage of song and street theatre,
statehood activists made their case, both educating a largely unaware
Indian public and mobilizing Uttarakhand's diverse peoples for the cause.

Uttarakhandi cinema and its theatrical antecedents are a product of this
general awakening that began shortly after independence and accelerated
in fits and starts through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, before exploding in
the 1990s when the "Uttarakhand Andolan" or statehood movement peaked.
Throughout the hills and in Dehradun, Srinagar, Almora, and Nainital, a
movement emerged made of "artists, poets, singers and actors using
cultural and artistic forms to further the struggle." (Fernandes, S.
"With our pens, brushes and art" /Green Left Weekly/, July 3, 1996).
Their marriage of folkloric village themes and pressing socio-economic
problems continued into the medium of film that began with the
production of Gaur's /Jagwal /in 1983 through to the 2003 premiere of
/Teri Saun/, a film explicitly based on the Uttarakhand movement.

The Uttarakhand Cinema web site highlights these accomplishments with
news clippings, stills, and video clips in order to preserve the brief
but rich history of regional film. As a work in progress, stories,
biographies, and archival footage will be posted to the site as fast as
the Prayaga Confluence (http://prayaga.org) web site host can process them.

--
_______________________________________
Rajiv Rawat (MES, PhD Candidate)
Yellowknife, NT, Canada
web (personal): http://www.rawat.org
web (projects): http://www.prayaga.org

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